Apprenticeships are the hot career path for Black Country and Staffordshire youngsters worried about the prospect of hefty university fees as high as £9,000 a year – as a newly-launched recruitment event proved.

Hundreds were attracted to the Real Apprentice Showcase, launched in Brierley Hill yesterday, as organisations set out their stalls with opportunities in jobs ranging from engineering, bus driving and the army, to beauty, hospitality, health and construction centres.

One of the most popular stands was run by Jaguar Land Rover, which has announced the search for 133 apprentices, including eight needed to help build engines at its forthcoming landmark i54 factory, by the M54 motorway near Wolverhampton.

They are the first of a total workforce of 750 which will be eventually recruited for the 800,000 sq ft factory on the i54 site,

Existing JLR apprentice Daniel Harvey, aged 18, of Salisbury Drive, Heath Hayes, Cannock, spoke with enthusiasm to other youngsters looking into the possibility of joining the company at the showcase, held in Brierley Hill Civic Hall.

Daniel, who signed up for a four-year advanced apprenticeship with JLR in September, said: “I was originally planning to go to uni to study engineering but was put off by tuition fees.

“My brother, Simon, who’s 22, has student debts and I didn’t want to end up the same.

“The other worry was that you hear of people leaving university with no experience and not being able to get a job. But, as a JLR apprentice, I’m getting paid while I learn.

“The apprenticeship has exceeded my expectations – it’s absolutely brilliant and the best decision I could have made.”

Saboor Mohammad, aged 19, of Talbot Street, Brierley Hill, said: “I am looking at going to university to do international business and economics – but I’m also looking at an apprenticeship with Jaguar Land Rover as an alternative, in case I decide tuition fees would be too high.”